Roger Federer will be playing in the Swiss Indoors Basel final for the 15th time and bidding for his 10th title when he takes the court on Sunday afternoon. Federer is an amazing 74-9 lifetime at the event and is riding a current 23-match winning streak.
The 38-year-old Swiss has not lost in Basel since the 2013 final against Juan Martin Del Potro, who also got him on championship Sunday in 2012. Nobody other than Del Potro and Novak Djokovic (2009) has defeated Federer at this event since 2003, when Ivan Ljuvicic–Federer’s current coach–accomplished the feat.
Now it is Alex de Minaur who gets a shot at the 20-time Grand Slam champion, something the 20-year-old Australian has never experienced at any tournament. He battled his way into the final by beating Hugo Dellien, Taylor Fritz, Jan-Lennard Struff, and Reilly Opelka. De Minaur won his first three matches in straight sets before outlasting Opelka 7-6(2), 6-7(4), 7-6(3) on Sunday evening.
“I can’t wait,” the world No. 28 assured. “It’s my first time here in Basel and it’s been a hell of an experience. I’ve got my friends with me, so it’s a little bit different and it’s been paying off. I’m really looking forward to coming out tomorrow and having some fun.”
Federer has enjoyed a remarkably routine trek through the bracket. The No. 1 seed defeated Peter Gojowyczk 6-2, 6-1, Radu Albot 6-0, 6-3, and Stefanos Tsitsipas 6-4, 6-4 to go along with a quarterfinal walkover from Stan Wawrinka. In other words, he has dropped fewer games throughout the entire week (14) than de Minaur did in the semis against Opelka (19).
“It’s hard to believe that I’m in another Basel final,” Federer said. “It’s super exciting.”
In reality, of course, it’s not hard to believe all all. Only a loss on Sunday would be hard to believe, and it almost certainly won’t happen.
Pick: Federer in 2 with no tiebreakers
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Fed’s won this thing 9 times and been in a few more finals and finds it “hard to believe?” Ah, well, maybe he finds it hard to believe he’s still playing tennis at 38 when he should be running around in the backyard playing soccer with his kiddies!
Fed in 2. Don’t think the Demon’s speedy young legs will trouble the Old Goat. 🙂
Hard to believe he will lose even a set.
It is good chance for Fed to add his trophy tallies when Nole and Rafa are not here. Next few years would be unlikely for him to win trophies anymore with all young guns coming up while Nole and Rafa would remain king of tennis for maybe at least three to four more years.
He should break Connors record even avoiding those rivals
What do you guys think, should he play Paris? or focus on London only?
The way he is playing he stands a good chance in Paris with rafa returning on his worst surface, novak short on confidence. Moreover he played only four matches in base and they were super quick. Golden opportunity to add points